A lithographic apparatus is a machine that applies a desired pattern onto a substrate, usually onto a target portion of the substrate. A lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In such a case, a patterning device, which is alternatively referred to as a mask or a reticle, may be used to generate a circuit pattern to be formed on an individual layer of the IC. This pattern can be transferred onto a target portion (e.g. including part of, one, or several dies) on a substrate (e.g. a silicon wafer). Transfer of the pattern is typically via imaging onto a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist) provided on the substrate. In general, a single substrate will contain a network of adjacent target portions that are successively patterned. Conventional lithographic apparatus include so-called steppers, in which each target portion is irradiated by exposing an entire pattern onto the target portion at once, and so-called scanners, in which each target portion is irradiated by scanning the pattern through a radiation beam in a given direction (the “scanning”-direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate parallel or anti-parallel to this direction. It is also possible to transfer the pattern from the patterning device to the substrate by imprinting the pattern onto the substrate. In order to ensure that the integrated circuit as produced operates properly, an accurate transfer of a pattern onto a target portion (in particular with respect to the position of a pattern in a lower layer of the integrated circuit) of the substrate is required. Further, a high performance with respect to throughput (i.e. the numbers of substrates processed per unit of time) is equally desired. As such, in order to meet these requirements, a high performance position control system is required for positioning the substrate relative to the patterning device (or a projection system of the apparatus). Typically, encoder based position measurement systems, or interferometer based position measurement systems or a combination thereof are applied. Further, as the substrate undergoes various processes throughout the lithographic apparatus, the overall operating area which is covered by a substrate table to which the substrate is mounted, is comparatively large, compared to the operating area that is used during the exposure of the substrate. Due to limitations (in particular manufacturing limitations or cost limitations), different position measurement systems or different configurations of similar position measurement systems are applied throughout the overall operating area. In order to cope with such different position measurement systems or different configurations of position measurement systems, a bandwidth of a position controller of the position control system may be adversely affected, thus adversely affecting the performance of the controller.